Doctors killed my son with Fentanyl - stop prescribing opioids

He was an up & coming athlete, and when he was injured playing football he was prescribed a drug 100 times more potent than morphine: Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous, addictive drug. Angus battled his addiction for eight years, but GPs prescribed him this lethal drug over and over again until it killed him.

Days after he died, I found out that thirteen different doctors prescribed my son this drug. Doctors are meant to look out for vulnerable people, not hastily prescribe dangerous drugs to people who are struggling with addiction.

Like other dangerous drugs, Fentanyl needs to be highly restricted medication requiring a permit.

That’s why I’m calling on the Minister for Health to restrict the prescription of Fentanyl to specialists, not GPs.

In the United States, a third of all drug deaths are now from Fentanyl. And it’s already started here, in the six years to 2016, there was a 1,800% increase in Australian Fentanyl deaths.

Right now, doctors are handing out this lethal drug like smarties. How many more sons have to die before Health Minister Greg Hunt acts?